Hiking teams in training to tackle Ten Tors

THIS year's Ten Tors and Jubilee challenge is gearing up for its 54th event with participants facing a test of endurance.

More than 2,400 adventurous youngsters will head off at 7am on May 10 across the northern edge of Dartmoor for what is now one of the biggest multi-agency, tri-service civil contingency exercises in Britain. It is run by more than nine hundred military personnel – almost all of them Reservists – from all three branches of the Armed Forces, led by the Army's 43 (Wessex) Brigade.

As a military exercise Ten Tors provides the Armed Forces with an invaluable opportunity to practice life-saving civil contingency responsibilities, to enable the military – assisted by the emergency services, including The British Red Cross and the Dartmoor Search and Rescue Group – to be ready to help when they are called upon during a national emergency.

Brigadier Piers Hankinson MBE, Director of Ten Tors, is the Commander of 43 (Wessex) Brigade and was the Joint Military Commander for the South West during the flooding.

He said: "The severe flooding across parts of the South West earlier this year clearly demonstrates the importance of such training and the ability to react to fast changing conditions and working in a multi-agency tri-service team."

As usual, scores of scout groups, sports and ramblers teams and Armed Forces cadet units have accepted the challenge and are taking part.